Moments in Time
by KhakiGrrl
Summary: Charlie does some time-hopping and discovers what's really important to him.


**Moments in Time**

**by Khaki**

**Category:** Drama  
**Rating: ** PG13  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own nutin'.  
**Feedback:** Is treasured forever.  
**Archive Rights:** Want. Ask. Take. Have.  
**Author's Notes: **This is all SLYOne's fault. Why'd she have to go and introduce me to this wonderful cache of K&L fiction? I was perfectly happy with just Someone Like You and X-Men to keep me busy. Oh well.  
**Summary:** Charlie does some time-hopping and discovers what's really important to him.

**********

_POV: Charlie_

Everywhere I look, everything reminds me of Kate. Of course, I am living in her apartment now, so it's not like that's unexpected. Still, it reminds me too much of what I've lost. 

Kate never had an easy life. Her mom ran off with the next door neighbor when she was only four. She practically had to raise herself, what with Dad working all the time. Then when she was twelve, Dad married my mom and they had me ten months later.

If I was her, I would've probably been pissed and rebelled. Not Kate. She always tried to be the perfect daughter and do everything Dad wanted. At first, I'm sure that's why she was so good to me, but then our relationship grew until she was almost like a second mother to me. Even when she went off to college, she called me all the time and came back home at least two weekends out of every four. 

When I graduated high school, I already had my bags packed. I didn't want to go to college, didn't want to be the perfect lawyer Dad had always hoped for. I wanted to be an actor. The only person... the *only* one... who encouraged me was Kate. She thought I'd make a great actor, and ya know what? Her opinion was the only one that mattered. 

I moved into her apartment, took parts where I got them, and split the rest of my time between acting classes and waiting tables. Kate encouraged me, read lines with me when I was working on a part, and basically kept me clothed, sheltered, and fed for nine years. Then, she left.

She found, just as I had years earlier, that the corporate life would never bring her true happiness. She met a guy, fell in love, and moved out. Typical love story... unless you consider this guy was a duke from the 19th century. She followed him back through time to live a full and happy life. Or at least I hope she did.

There's a nice little section in the history books for Leopold, Duke of Albany, inventor of the elevator, but they don't really mention his wife more than to say that she was generally considered odd, but delightful. That's my Kate.

I've checked the genealogy websites and done some serious research these past few months, but I haven't been able to find out much more. I do know that they were married May 30, 1876. They had one daughter, Elizabeth Charlene Marie Louisa Anna McKay Mountbatten, November 2, 1877. I wonder how long it took the poor kid to learn to write her name. Anyway, Kate passed away in her sleep on January 23, 1919 at the age of 82. Leo didn't last a month without her. He died in mid-February 1919.

Still, even with these few facts, I didn't have any details. Was she happy that she left? Did she have a good life? Did she miss me as much as I did her? It was only a matter of time before I turned to Stuart for my answers.

He said it'd take five years before I could get really close to the time Kate arrived in 1876, but I wanted to see her after she'd been there a few years anyway. I needed to know if she was really happy with her choice. I couldn't just abandon her to fate, not when she'd spent so many years looking out for me. 

Ever since his success with Leo, Stu's been taking quick trips to map out the time portal. It didn't take him three hours before he had my little trip planned out. I can jump off the bridge in two weeks and get to New York, 1885. I'll have two days there, and then I return to New York, 2002. Sounds good to me.

-----

Whoa. That's a wicked trip. One second, I'm falling faster and faster towards the choppy surface of the East River, and the next, I'm lying completely still in the middle of a cobblestone street. It's not even like I landed here. I just sorta appeared. Stuart said it'd be like that. All the times he's jumped, he always ends up somewhere in New York, kinda like the portal moves you a little bit through space at the same instant it moves you through time.

For a moment, I just lie there, trying to get adjusted to what's just happened to me. Then, the sound of hooves on stone, a man's shout, women screaming, horses whinnying, and I'm rolling so quickly that one heartbeat... two... and I'm out of the way. My pants are stained with old horse dung, I'm panting so hard that I'm sure I'll never catch my breath, but I'm still alive. It came out of nowhere. What was a horse-drawn carriage doing there... in the middle of the street? Heh. Stuart didn't warn me about that. Guess I'd better be really careful when I get back to 2002, or I'll be taxi fodder.

I follow Stuart's directions then ask a few kind-hearted people for better directions before I'm finally in front of Kate's home. It's the same building that she was in the night Stuart and I found her and convinced her to go back to the past. Go figure.

The servant that answered the door isn't too keen on letting me in. I understand. My clothes probably look weird to him, and besides that, I stink from rolling around on the road. Still, I try my hardest to convince him that I really am Kate's brother and not some burglar or serial killer or something. It doesn't do me any good. That is, until Kate walks past the front hall.

It actually takes me a second to recognize her, dressed in a flattering gown, her hair pulled back in a bun, walking with the posture and grace of a lady. This is not the sister I knew, the one who slouched around in jeans on the weekends, the one who avoided wearing dresses except on the most formal of occasions. This is a duchess.

"Kate!" I call to her. "Hey, sis. Tell him to let me in."

She turns, looks at me, her mouth drops open in shock, and her eyes roll back in her head as she faints dead away.

-----

"Where is she? What happened? Has the doctor been here?"

Leo's voice fills the house an hour later as he races through the doorway and towards the stairs, not bothering to wait for the answers to his questions... until he sees me in the sitting room off the hall.

He stops mid-stride, almost tripping over his feet. The worry and fear shown by his squared jaw and expressive eyes disappear as all the blood drains from his face.

"Ch... Charles?" Leo sways on his feet before the servant I'd met at the door grasps onto his arms and steadies him.

"Leo, are you ok?"

He swallows and blinks a few times, like he can't quite believe what he's seeing, and answers, "Charles, you're dead."

-----

I'm dead. Well, obviously I'm not dead now. I wouldn't be here if I was dead now, but I will be dead. Dead in the past... but also in the future. I will be was dead. I shall be have been dying. Sometime in my future, I'll travel to Kate and Leo's past and die. 

"How?" I ask.

Leo's sitting on the couch across from me as we talk in the sitting room, trying to figure out what the hell's going on.

"It was on your return," Leo says, his voice hesitating. "From what I can gather, your physician friend made the transition, but you... There was a storm Charles. I don't know exactly what happened, but the constables came to us the next day. They'd found one of Kate's handkerchiefs on a body, and... it was you, Charles. You were at the foot of the East River bridge. It appeared that you'd fallen to your death."

"What?"

It's so weird to be told exactly how I'll die. I feel regret and grief like I've been told about the loss of a best friend. It hasn't even really happened yet. But it will happen. It has to, doesn't it? I wish Stuart was here. He could explain all this time travel stuff a whole lot better than I can figure it out.

"Why was I here?"

"You came back for Kate. She was... Lizzy was a difficult birth for your sister."

"Lizzy?"

"Your niece, Charles. Seven years old, and quite a wonderful little girl. She and your sister, they are the light of my world." Leo's smiling now, his eyes glowing. "I don't know what I would do if I lost them. Lizzy's delivery took almost two days. Kate was exhausted and Lizzy was... caught. Our physician determined that she could not be delivered naturally and that a Caesarian was required. Kate refused."

"Refused? Why?"

"She insisted that the medical instruments and the physician himself were not properly sterilized. Your sister has always been quite adamant about personal hygiene."

"Kate?" She was never all that phobic about germs.

"Yes. She has taught me a great deal about how disease spreads. In fact, she was quite ill upon first arriving here. She called her illness... Montezuma's revenge? In order to recover, she insisted that everyone in the household wash their hands with soap after using the," Leo cleared his throat, "privy, as well as before preparing meals."

Well, if people in this time aren't usually doing that, I can understand her point. If the doctor was dirty, I wouldn't want him to operate on me either. She could get an infection and die.

"So I came back..." I prompted.

"With a physician friend of yours. Steve, I believe you called him. He had the modern medicine, instruments, and skills that put Kate's fears to ease. He performed the surgery and saved my family."

"But, Steve's just an intern. He couldn't..." Wait. He couldn't now, but he could in a few years.

"Charlie." A distant voice interrupts our discussion. Kate's voice. I can hear her stomping down the stairs. "Don't you tell me that! I know I saw him. Where is he? Charlie!"

"Kate," I call to her, and a moment later, she's in the doorway.

Her dress is rumpled, her hair is half hanging out of her bun, and her makeup is smeared, but she's there.

"Oh, Charlie," she says, and then she starts sobbing.

Both Leo and I stand at the same time and go to her. Leo holds out his hand to her, but she throws herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and leaning in to me to stay upright.

"They told me you were dead! I couldn't take it, Charlie. It was all my fault. But now you're here. You're alive."

-----

"Daddy says you're my Uncle Charles," a young girl with long, curly dark hair and bright blue eyes says as she approaches me across the back lawn.

"Yeah. You must be Lizzy."

Her nose goes up in the air, and she answers, "Elizabeth Charlene Marie Louisa Anna McKay Mountbatten, but since you're my uncle, I will permit you to address me as Lizzy." Then, her prim, stuck-up facade cracks and she giggles.

"Oh, you'll *permit* me, will you?" I ask as I lean forward, tickling her tummy. 

Her giggling rises in volume, making me laugh, too, and then I pick her up and put her on the bench next to me. I can't explain it, but I immediately feel comfortable with her. She's just a perfect mix of Kate and Leo. 

The giggling fades as I stop tickling, and her face turns serious again. 

"Mommy's sad."

"I know."

I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it. Kate's always been the strong one, but she broke down in front of me when Leo and I explained that not only did I have to go back in two days, but I was also still going to die. She cried, practically tantrumed, and then pitifully begged me not to do it, not to save her. She said she'd just been in pain, that she would've been fine with the 19th century doctor, that I didn't need to come back for her. 

That can't be right, though. I didn't find much information about her in the genealogical records, but I did find out when she died. If she was really fine, I wouldn't have come back with a doctor. Something terrible must've happened.

"Why does Mommy always say you died when you didn't?"

Oh, how do I explain time travel to a kid when I don't understand it myself?

"She always says it?"

"Yeah. My second name's Charlene after you. You saved me and mommy when I was a baby, but then you died. Mommy tells me all about you. How nice you are and funny and how you were going to be a great actor, like the people in the playhouses. Then, she gets sad and doesn't want to talk anymore. She misses you."

"I miss her, too."

-----

I'm on the bridge again, and Leo's standing next to me. After what happened to me years ago from his perspective, he insisted on making sure I got up here ok.

It's been a pretty hard couple of days, what with Kate clinging to me almost every minute and pleading with me not to come back... not to die. Frankly, I'm not too keen on it myself. Leo's told me all the details he knows on what happened to me. Maybe I can still save Kate and avoid the consequences.

"Charles, I know this is impertinent and completely selfish of me, but I must ask you. No, I beg of you. Please..."

"it's ok, Leo. I'm not gonna leave her to die."

Leo shuts his mouth, his lips forming a tight line, and nods at me. "Thank you."

"Just... take care her. Of both of them. They're special girls."

"I heartily agree," Leo says, a smile creeping back to his face. "Good luck, Charles."

-----

Stuart had a hard time accepting the news I brought back with me. At first, I was really surprised. I mean, we're neighbors, and I know he dated Kate, but I didn't realize he really cared that much. Then, he told me.

"Leopold is my great, great grandfather. If Kate dies in childbirth, if Elizabeth doesn't make it, I cease to exist. If I cease to exist, then I never bring Leopold forward in time, Kate never falls in love with him, and Kate doesn't die. Paradox."

"Paradox?"

"Yes. The world as we know it, disappears." Stuart gets up from his desk and starts pacing the room. "If Kate never went back in time, all the lives she affected are altered, as well as the lives of all those people who interacted with her children and her children's children and her children's children's children."

"Stuart, take a breath, man."

He stops in his pacing to look at me in dismay. "Take a breath? The world is ending and you tell me to take a breath?"

"It can't be that bad. I mean, Kate's been gone for months and nothing's happened to you."

"That doesn't mean anything. Leo told you that an intern friend of yours was a surgeon when you brought him back in time. How many years has to pass before that happens? The elevators started failing only hours after Leopold came to this time period. How long will it take before I disappear from this time continuum? And if I disappear, then whatever calculations I make to get you back to the proper time go with me. You'll never be able to correct the paradox!"

"Get grip, Stu. Do the calculations. Maybe I can go back sooner than we think. Maybe I take another Steve back with me. Did you ever think of that?"

"Yes... yes, that makes sense. That could work. I'll start figuring it out now."

-----

Four years. Our first suspicions were correct and it took four years before I could catch the portal to November 1877. 

Stuart was right about the paradox, too. One day, I woke up and Kate was making breakfast. When I ran up the fire escape to Stu's apartment I saw an Italian couple making breakfast and playing with their baby through the window. No sign of Stuart, his dog, his papers, his instruments, nothing. 

I asked Kate about it and she put a hand on my forehead like she did when I was sick. No, she'd never heard of Stuart Besser. Yes, the Andunucci's had lived upstairs for years. What was wrong with me?

She told me to call in sick to work and get back in bed. I was probably coming down with something. She wanted to stay, but she had to get to work. Her new position was even more time consuming than her old one, and she said she'd be back at 10 p.m.

It wasn't just Stuart or Kate, either. The whole world changed. Stuart was right in all his predictions except for one. I remembered. 

I don't know why the paradox spared me, maybe it was because I was the only one who could change it. Whatever the reason, I still knew the date and time Stu had calculated for me to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and make it back to save Kate. 

It took some convincing to get Steve to go along with me. In fact, I had to borrow a gun from the theater props department to help urge him over the side and across the beam spanning traffic. Even then, he wouldn't jump off. I had to tackle him so both of us fell together.

-----

From the moment I open the door, I know Kate's in trouble.

"Leopold!" Her shrill scream fills the house. 

"Unhand me! I'm going in there," Leo's voice drifts down to us from floors above.

"Leopold, calm yourself. Allow the doctor to do his job. It's improper for a husband to be present at the birth. You must wait in the parlor."

"Leopold! Please, help me!"

"Uncle Millard. Tell your servants to release me, or so help me..."

"Fine, you want to behave like a peasant, go ahead."

"Leo! Get this quack away from me!"

"Stand back, sir."

"You don't understand. I must perform a Caesarian section, or both your wife and child will die."

By that point, Steve and I are up the stairs and in the doorway of the room where all the voices are originating. The smell of blood and sweat fills the air. 

"Kate, it's ok. We're here."

Kate's weary head turns to look at me, and I see surprise and relief in her eyes. Her body is pale and she's lying in a slowly expanding ring of blood and liquid.

"Charles, what..." Leo's standing on the opposite side of the room from the door. He's grasping the hands of a shorter, older man, trying to hold him back from Kate. The man holds a scalpel in one hand and both the blade and the man's clothes are crusted with old blood. It doesn't look like he's washed his hands days. No wonder Kate's so determined to keep him away.

"I've brought a surgeon with me. Kate, don't worry. You're going to be ok, now."

-----

Steve kicked us all out of the room, but kept us busy boiling water and bringing clean towels and sheets to him until he was done. The baby's shoulder had been stuck against Kate's hipbone. She was too big and Steve had to do a Caesarian to get her out. Both mother and child made it through the surgery fine. 

Kate's resting comfortably in a fresh bed now, and Leo's holding his brand new 9 pound 7 ounce baby girl, his face wide-eyed in awe.

I did it. I saved her. I stopped the paradox. Now, it's time to meet my fate.

"Leo, we've gotta go, man. The portal closes in an hour."

"What? Oh, Charles, of course. You have to go." He looks down at the daughter in his arms and then looks back up at me with tears glistening in his eyes. "How can I ever thank you?"

"Take care of them for me."

"Always."

-----

When we arrived in 1877, the weather was closing in. Now, it's snowing, hard. The wind's blowing it into our faces as we walk onto the bridge that has changed so much of my life. 

"Charlie? What in the hell's going on?"

"We're going back to 2002. Don't worry, Steve. It'll all seem like some crazy dream in the morning. Just do what I say now, and we'll make it back ok."

Well, at least he'll make it back. Leo said I was the only body found by the river for weeks. Whatever's going to happen to me, it happens after Steve's gone.

We finally get to the right girder, and just looking at it, I realize what happened, or happens, to me. It's covered in a thick coating of ice. Steve must make it across, but I don't.

I tell Steve to go for it, and he does, slipping and sliding, but never falling until he gets to the end and jumps. Then it's my turn.

Maybe I tried walking across it before. Maybe if I crawled or shimmied across it, I could make it. Or maybe this is it. Maybe, no matter what I do, I'm doomed to die here.

Unless...

I don't have to live in the 21st century to be an actor. I've been doing a lot of stage productions anyway. What's stopping me? I could live here, be close to Kate, and get to know Lizzy better.

-----

When I walk back into Kate's room to find Leo lying on the bed with her, cradling her in one arm and Lizzy in the other, I realize that she made the right choice coming back to this time. When Kate opens her eyes and smiles at me with joy not even her exhaustion could temper, I realize that I made the right choice, too.

The End.


End file.
